Adventures In Missing the Point
REFLECTIONS ON LENT by Casey Thornburgh, LSC Intern

I am never quite sure what to make of Lent. Growing up in a quasi-Catholic family, Lent was the season of fishy Fridays. Oh, what a horrible season. We Kansans love our beef (cover your ears, vegetarians) and the Thornburgh family ate some form of it nightly, except, of course, during Lent. There was no refuge at school either. Without fail the cafeteria would have some very potent fried fish option –yes fish in Kansas, not a state known for seafood, it’s a wonder I never got sick—every Friday for the good Catholic kids. At the end of the fish madness came Easter and Easter candy. I looked at that Easter basket as a reward for being so patient during that horribly fishy season.

In high school, I got involved in a seeker-friendly Evangelical Church in the neighborhood. This was when I first heard about the notion of “giving things up” for Lent. For many years I was in a vicious cycle of giving up things I really enjoyed in order to show my love for Jesus. Yes, not eating chocolate, fast food, coffee and not watching television or playing on facebook somehow got me in touch with the suffering of Jesus, at least that’s what I thought the point of it all was. I don’t think I ever made it through a Lent season without giving in to one of the things I’d given up during the 40 days…at least twice.

Two years ago, I decided I would “do something”, rather than “not doing something” just to switch things up. I wrote letters to people. That at least got a positive response.

But how was I being faithful, mindful, meditative on Jesus, the passion, this Lent season in all my doings or non-doings?

I wonder if I am still missing the point.

This year I hope to experience Lent as a movement or rather a series of movements. This movement is one (or many) toward reconciliation. I know that word sounds so churchy that it may seem overdone or contrite or irrelevant, so perhaps a new framework is in order. Maybe I could begin with the end in mind, in the word reconnection.

In the act and sacrament of reconciliation one confesses, offers penance, repents, all in the hope of being reconnected with sister, daughter, brother, father, mother, God.

As a church, LaSalle will look at Reconciliation through five movements. We begin with reconciliation/reconnection with God, then we move outward as we seek to reconcile with our self, our neighbor, the environment, and the global community.

Of course I am not saying that it is wrong or invalid to “give something up” during this season. The sole focus in all fasting and feasting is a soul focus on the Grace, Peace, Justice, and Love of God as exemplified in the life, death and resurrection of Jesus.

Traveling mercies to you as you begin this series of movements toward being reconnected and reconciled with the One in whom we live, move, and have our being.